US fears China’s influence in Mideast: Analyst

The United States is desperately worried about China’s growing influence in the Middle East, says a political analyst.

Dennis Etler made the comments in an interview with Press TV on Sunday when asked about US Secretary of State John Kerry’s trip to East Asia where he plans to pressurize China to curb North Korea and to call on Southeast Asian nations to respond to China’s claims in the South China Sea.

“US Secretary of State John Kerry is embarking on a fool's errand to try on one hand convince China to follow the US lead in imposing a new round of sanctions on North Korea for its recent nuclear bomb test while at the same time trying to convince Southeast Asian nations to “stand up” to China in the South China Sea,” Etler said.

He said, “China will, however, work in the interests of its own security both on the Korean Peninsula and in the South China Sea, and not be bamboozled by US double dealing.”

According to Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, “China supported resolving the 'reasonable concerns' of all parties, including North Korea's, and achieving lasting peace through the established channels of the six party talks,” Etler noted.

“She also said that the origin of the nuclear issue did not lie with China and ‘the key to resolving the issue is also not on China’,” he added.

He went on to say that “China has expressed concerns that the nuclear policy of the DPRK will in the long run be detrimental to the interests of both itself and China. It has also expressed sympathy for the plight of North Korea in facing an intransigent US bent on destabilizing nations it opposes throughout the world.”

On January 6, Pyongyang said it successfully conducted a hydrogen bomb test, hours after seismologists detected an artificial earthquake close to the country's main atomic test site northeast of North Korea.

North Korea accuses the US of plotting with regional allies to topple its government. Pyongyang says it will not relinquish its nuclear deterrence unless the US ends its hostile policy toward it and dissolves the US-led UN command in the region.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Etler pointed to the disputes over the South China Sea, saying “China has asserted its sovereignty over both the Xisha (Parasel) and Nansha (Spratly) Islands as well as much of the Sea itself.”

However, “the US in response has attempted to forge an anti-China alliance of Southeast Asia nations who hold claim to portions of the contested region,” he added.

China claims sovereignty over almost the whole of the South China Sea, which is also claimed in part by Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. The waters are believed to sit atop vast reserves of oil and gas.

Kerry’s visit to East Asia will last three days starting in the region in Laos where he will attend the 2016 meeting of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Etler said the US “hopes to enlist ASEAN as a whole in this endeavor. But ASEAN nations have deep and abiding economic, cultural and political ties with China and will not throw those overboard to please Washington's hegemonic interests.”

He said Washington is concerned about the increasing China’s influence in the Middle East, noting “prior to traveling to Asia, Kerry made a hasty visit to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, apparently to shore up the US-Saudi relationship in the wake of Chinese President Xi Jinping's successful visit.”

“The US is fearful of losing influence to China in the Middle East after Xi's visit to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran. China has both credibility and deep pockets, while the US has neither,” he stated.

“The US is pushing back by going all out to assault China in its own backyard. The US is trying by all means possible to maintain is global dominance in the face of China's push for a new approach to international relations,” he noted.  

“The US promotes austerity, war, insecurity and destruction wherever it shows its face,” Etler said.

“If the US really wanted to solve the issues in both the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea it would sign a non-aggression pact with China, a peace treaty with the DPRK, stop arming Taiwan, stop trying to destabilize China by fomenting color revolutions in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet and Xinjiang, stop interfering in the East and South China Seas, withdraw its military forces from South Korea, Japan and Okinawa, and let China develop its own internal policies without outside interference.”

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